The French island of Guadeloupe, located in the Caribbean Sea and with about 380,000 inhabitants, is without electricity after a “widespread electrical incident” at a power plant that manages almost all of the territory’s energy, the operating company EDF Archipel Guadeloupe has reported. The cut occurs in a context of labor conflict in the electricity production branch, local media have recalled. The island’s prefecture, which has already suffered power outages in recent days, has stated that “striking employees broke into the control room” of the plant.
“This Friday, a blackout affects all of Guadeloupe after the interruption of all engines at the Pointe-Jarry plant,” the company wrote in a statement on Facebook. In the text they have explained that the outage began around 8:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. in mainland Spain) and that it could last “longer than usual.” In addition, they have indicated that it is unknown how long it will take for service to be restored.
The blackout, as detailed by the electricity company, is due to the stoppage of the 12 engines of the plant, which has been operating since 2015 and supplies almost all of the electricity to the island. The statement reported the labor conflict that for days has pitted the workers of the company’s production branch against its management. The dispute is due to claims related to delays in the payment of salaries, the recognition of temporary workers and the calculation of vacation pay.
The prefecture of Guadeloupe, for its part, has reported that “striking employees broke into the control room at 8:30 and caused an emergency stop of all the plant’s engines.” Furthermore, in a message published on the social network
This is not the first time that a labor dispute has broken out in the EDF company on the island. Production was paralyzed at the beginning of 2023, as a result of a strike that lasted for two months for the same reasons that motivated this Friday’s cut. In the current litigation, which began on September 15, the strikers ask that a protocol of agreement signed after last year’s strike be applied. The plant’s management proposed an agreement on October 21, but the energy federation of the CGT union rejected the pact due to a final obstacle related to the method of calculating vacations.
Electricity outages have caused interruptions in the supply of drinking water and for some days, the island’s inhabitants have been recording their daily lives without power in videos that they later publish on social networks. The director of EDF Archipel Guadeloupe, Marie-Line Bassette, has deplored in Franceinfo the method used by the strikers. It is “irresponsible to go to the extreme of a blackout, to deprive all of Guadeloupe of electricity due to demands, when there are means to manage this type of situation,” he said.
